BROKEN DOWN

First a quick parody of a Sgt. Pepper lyric:

I'm fixing a hole
Where the light's bashed in
because my mind was wandering
on the long rooooooaaaaad....

So I'm without a car for a while. I blame the people of New Hampshire. If you people didn't have such a fondness for vanity license plates, I wouldn't have been staring at them trying to count how many I could see, and I would have noticed the car in front of me was stopped and waiting to turn. SMASH.

Judging by the fact that I'm still here making up lyrics that essentially laugh at the situation, you can tell that I was exceedingly lucky. No one was hurt, and the car still runs. And last weekend, I went to pick up a replacement headlight and parking light from a used auto parts store in Lowell. Total cost of repairs thus far: $60. I can probably defray any additional costs if I can get the hood flattened and the front crossbar straightened out. Major thanks to my dad, who's been described as "the king of kludge." Your handyman skills know no bounds.

Somehow I just can't focus on the fact that I now can't work anywhere I can't bike to, unless I get the goddamn car fixed. So I've been spending my days loafing about the house, reacquainting myself with an old obsession, Microprose's Transport Tycoon Deluxe, perhaps the only game truly worthy of bearing the Tycoon name. And in the evenings when the sun dips below the houses across the street, then, and only then, do I get out the socket wrench.

Maybe my priorities aren't quite straight. The real reason I want to get the car fixed isn't necessarily so I can get back to work (although that certainly plays a part). I want to get back to FunWorld to do some more DDR. The $20 MadCatz PS2 pad I bought as an impulse buy is truly the embodiment of the phrase "you get what you pay for." You can't get home DDR pads that are even close to the arcade quality unless you build them yourself (I'm considering it) or pay $200 for high-quality ones like the metal pads offered by Red Octane and CobaltFlux. So I want to get back to the arcade, and I want to go spend some money at Borders, and waste an afternoon lounging around the mall and eating Ms Fields cookies and Auntie Anne pretzels.

When I first started driving, I hated it. I wouldn't drive anywhere I could walk to, and most of the time I still walk to a lot of places around town. I guess I've taken having a car for granted, since I never really missed it till it was gone. At least, I can get this back.